Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hello sea turtle lovers! My name is Lexi and I am lucky
enough to be one of the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rescue Program interns
this summer. While we as interns have many different responsibilities around
the hospital, one very exciting thing we get to do every week is to spend a day
working “in the field” protecting sea turtle nests. This past Tuesday, I had
the privilege of working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Cape
Romain National Wildlife Refuge, where loggerhead sea turtle nesting density is
really high. My day began at 4:45 a.m. with a 45-minute drive out to Garris Landing
and another 20 minute ride out to the dock in McClellanville. But let me tell
you, the haul was worth it! I got to see the sun come up over the marsh and was
welcomed by a dolphin in the tidal creek on the way out to the barrier islands.
I kept thinking to myself, is this real life?

A girl who works with the SC Department of Natural Resources
and I were dropped off at the first island, Lighthouse. We were left with our
backpacks, some poles, buckets, a shovel, nest cages, and the keys to the
four-wheeler. Once we got the four-wheeler loaded, we traveled to the far end
of the beach and scouted for nests on our way. We relocated the nests as we
worked our way back. Each nest is buried a little over a foot underground
and carries a range of 80 to 120+ eggs. The eggs seemed quite fragile,
resembling deflated ping-pong balls. Once we carefully dug them up and place
them gently in the bucket, we reburied the eggs safely above the high tide line,
usually around some vegetated dunes. After we buried them, we placed a
cage over the nest. This keeps predators such as raccoons and crabs out, but
still allows the baby turtles to crawl out of the nest once they hatch.
We had five nests total, and relocated four of them.

You can tell by the flipper marks where the turtle crawled
in from the water and where the crawled out of the nesting site. You can
also tell by the flipper marks if the female turtle had a “stumpy” flipper (where
it could have been injured a boat or predator). Interestingly enough, the only
nest that we did not have to relocate was created by a “stumpy” female turtle!
This just goes to show you how amazing these guys are and how strong their
instincts are to fulfill their “goal” of reproducing, no matter what the
struggle.

It’s such a great feeling
being able to help the species fulfill this goal by increasing the likelihood
that the hatchlings make it through the incubation process and back out to the ocean.
This was so much fun for me and I can’t wait to go back to Cape Romain!